


Closing Time

by artikgato



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Alcohol, Bartender AU, M/M, yukichie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:21:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26147830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artikgato/pseuds/artikgato
Summary: Yosuke took another drink, and then asked, “So, an attractive guy like you must be going out with girls all the time. Or, nah, you’ve probably already got a girlfriend.” Yu blinked. Was… was Yosuke asking if Yu was single? Yosuke continued. “Got any tips for how to score with the ladies?” Ah. Yu had jumped to conclusions. Well, that was a little disappointing, but not surprising.
Relationships: Hanamura Yosuke/Narukami Yu, Hanamura Yosuke/Persona 4 Protagonist, Hanamura Yosuke/Seta Souji
Comments: 5
Kudos: 158





	Closing Time

**Author's Note:**

> It's the bartender AU nobody asked for but I wrote anyway!

Yu Narukami had seen a lot in his time as a bartender at the Kingpin. It was a bar with surprisingly cheap drinks and cheaper food masquerading as a high-end big city bar, so it attracted both perpetually broke college-aged kids and also a fair number of salarymen and OLs alike. It was a popular date spot as well as a notorious place for hookups. For one patron in particular that was at Kingpin most weeknights, it was obviously the latter and decidedly not the former. Well. That wasn’t entirely true, Yu recalled. The first time Yu had seen Yosuke Hanamura in Kingpin, it had been on a date, now that he thought about it. He’d bought a nice dinner and drinks for a lady with curly blonde hair and some of the darkest under eye bags Yu had ever seen. Saki Konishi, her name was, Yu thought. He’d seen her in here a few more times, even served her a few drinks, but it was pointedly never when Yosuke was around.

The date had gone poorly.

After that, Yosuke had always gone to the bar instead of a table. Some nights he drank alone tucked into one of the corners of the bar. Most nights, however, he was trying to grab the attention of one lady after another. 

First, there had been Chie Satonaka. A fool’s errand, to be sure, and Yu really should have interfered or at least tried to warn Yosuke. The second had been Yukiko Amagi, and for the same reason as Chie, Yu should have tried to interfere. Chie had a massive crush on Yukiko and the feeling was mutual, but neither of them were acting on their feelings. Yu had been subtly trying to set them up for literal months. As it turned out, Yosuke hitting on Yukiko had been the catalyst that finally got them together. The day after, Yosuke had shown up to the bar but had simply sulked in the corner with a cheap beer. It hadn’t been very busy that night, so Yu had decided to go over and talk to him. 

“You know,” he started, plunking a better beer down on the bar in front of Yosuke. “Chie and Yukiko are dating now thanks to you.”

“Oh, great,” Yosuke sighed. “Well, I was never going to have a chance with either of them anyway. I guess that makes me feel a little better.”

He’d downed the rest of his beer in one big gulp and pulled the new beer over towards him. 

“On the house,” Yu told him, and Yosuke’s grin in response made Yu’s heart beat a little faster. Yosuke tried a sip of the beer.

“Oh, damn that’s good,” he said. Yu nodded.

“I thought you might like that,” he replied. 

Yosuke took another drink, and then asked, “So, an attractive guy like you must be going out with girls all the time. Or, nah, you’ve probably already got a girlfriend.” Yu blinked. Was… was Yosuke asking if Yu was single? Yosuke continued. “Got any tips for how to score with the ladies?”

Ah. Yu had jumped to conclusions. Well, that was a little disappointing, but not surprising. Yu, naturally, had little to offer him in terms of good advice for wooing ladies specifically, but he could at least help a little.

“You’re trying too hard,” he said. “Coming on way too strong. You want to talk to the person first. Just some friendly chitchat. Ask a few no-pressure questions first. Pay attention to their body language. If they look nervous or disinterested, it’s best to just leave them alone.” 

“I’ve been doing that,” Yosuke whined. “They’ll let me buy them drinks, but once I ask if they want to come back to my place all of a sudden they aren’t interested.”

“So you’re asking them about sex within hours of meeting them?” Yu asked. 

“Not necessarily!” Yosuke back-pedalled. “I’m asking if they want to hang out outside of the bar! And, y’know, if sex happens then that’s cool, too.”

Yu couldn’t help staring at him, unsure if he should be gentle or blunt in how he phrased what he was going to say next. 

“Yosuke… you may not think you’re implying you want sex, but that’s what they think you’re implying when you say that,” he explained.

“...oh,” Yosuke replied, eyes wide with the realization. “Huh.”

“Maybe just try asking if they want to go to lunch or coffee some time,” Yu suggested.

The next girl that Yosuke tried to hit on was Rise Kujikawa. This had predictably ended in spectacular failure. Yu had tried to warn him, he really, really had. At least Rise had been blunt with him. She only had eyes for Yu himself, and made that fact abundantly clear. Yosuke had sulked for the rest of the night but by the next day he’d recovered. And he gave Rise plenty of space after that. And, well, if Yu maybe spent a little more time talking to Yosuke to avoid her, Yosuke didn’t seem to mind. 

Honestly, at this point there wasn’t much else Yu could say to her to dissuade her, other than admitting to her that he was gay. She didn’t seem like the type that would out him to his boss, but all the same he couldn’t be too careful. He quite liked bartending at the Kingpin, and he had no interest in finding a new bar or a new career.

Rise had been a complete bust, but soon enough Yosuke was on the rebound, and unfortunately for him Yu didn’t see who his next attempt was before he could warn him. 

Ai Ebihara was a good person, somewhere, under layers and layers of self-deprecation and selfishness. Yu knew her from high school. Yu had dated her in high school. Ai was the reason Yu knew he was gay. And, predictably, Yosuke had jumped at the chance to talk to her almost immediately, and on a very busy night. The other bartender, Naoto, had already put three expensive mixed drinks and a platter of fruits and sweets on Yosuke’s tab before Yu noticed who he was flirting with. Well, it was too late to save him. Hopefully Ai would go easy on him.

Ai did not go easy on him.

He wasn’t at the bar for a solid week, and when he finally turned up he looked depressed, tucking himself into his corner and ordering a cheap beer. Yu instead grabbed the more expensive beer that Yosuke liked, setting it down in front of him and pulling up a stool.

“Ai pulled a fast one on you, huh?” he asked. Yosuke looked surprised. 

“Does she do that to a lot of guys?” Yosuke asked.

“Ever since high school,” Yu informed him. “Sorry I didn’t catch you in time to warn you.”

“I probably would have ignored your warning, to be honest,” Yosuke admitted. “She’s hot.”

“Well, chin up. You’ll meet someone that’ll treat you right one day,” Yu said.

About a week later, Rise dragged a friend with her into Kingpin. She was dressed very plainly and wore comically big glasses, but Yu knew who she was right away — Kanami Mashita, or Kanamin as she was known in the entertainment business. Rise herself was a former idol, now actress. Because Rise was a regular around the Kingpin pretty much everyone else that was a regular knew about that and didn't bother her, but she did get the occasional star-struck fan. But Kanami was new, and even in her civilian disguise she was really cute.

Yu wanted to warn Yosuke. He really did. Idols weren’t allowed to date, for one. But, also, Kanami was absolutely radiating lesbian vibes. But Yu could tell she was really trying hard with her disguise, so he didn’t have the heart to out her. So, he left it alone. Yosuke would find out eventually. The sad part was that Yosuke was really trying! And they were clicking, too. They could be really good friends in different circumstances. And Kanami was also absolutely, painfully oblivious to the fact that Yosuke was flirting with her.

Predictably, when he asked if she wanted to get lunch or coffee, she finally figured out that he was hitting on her and gently let him down. And then she told him that she couldn’t be seen in public with a man because of her job. And then he finally realized who she was.

He was in his usual corner of the bar for the rest of the night, ordering progressively stronger and stronger drinks. Yu eventually had to cut him off and call his eccentric roommate, Teddie, to make sure Yosuke got home safe that night.

The next day, Yosuke had come in, sat down, and informed Yu that he wasn’t going to be trying to pick up anyone that night. 

“I’m just here to drink,” Yosuke said, studying the section of the drink menu with the hard liquor. Yu had frowned and plucked the drink menu right out of his hands. Enough was enough. 

“Before I serve you anything with alcohol in it,” Yu had started, “I want to ask you something. How about I take you home tonight, Yosuke?”

“...huh?” Yosuke had asked, and Yu had died a little inside.

“Or I can at least take you out for coffee or lunch tomorrow?” he’d managed to ask.

“Wait,” Yosuke said. “Slow down. Did you just… you’re hitting on me? And you started by asking for sex right away? What happened to all that advice you gave me?” 

“I understand,” Yu had said, managing to keep his face blank even though all he was feeling was disappointed. He wasn’t surprised, but it still hurt, getting rejected like that. “I’ll make sure Naoto bartends for you from now on.”

“Wait!” Yosuke had exclaimed, reaching across the bar and grabbing Yu’s arm. “I… I didn’t say no!”

Yu had frozen in his tracks, turning back to Yosuke with wide eyes. Yosuke swallowed audibly and took a deep breath.

“Look,” he said, his voice quiet as he glanced around the rest of the bar. It was a quiet night and still early enough that the usual crowd hadn’t arrived yet. “Look, I… I’m not too sure about dating guys or, uh, doing other stuff with guys. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t interested in you.” 

“Really?” Yu had asked, and Yosuke had nodded.

“You’re a handsome guy, and I really like you,” he’d explained. “I just never thought in a million years you’d ever be interested in a loser bar rat like me. Not when you’ve got total babes like Ai and Rise hanging off of you.” Yu barely kept himself from laughing. He fished a pen and notepad out of his apron and jotted down his phone number, adding a few hearts around it, and pushed it across the bar.

“Feel free to stay until closing time, but here’s my number in case you don’t want to wait here all night.” 

Yosuke grinned across the bar at him, the same grin from before that had made Yu’s heart beat faster. This time, it gave him butterflies.

“I’ll stay until closing time,” Yosuke said, with a wink. “I know who I want to take me home.”


End file.
